Blog 11

Chan, Janet. “Racial Profiling and Police Subculture.” Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice, Jan2011, Vol. 53 Issue 1, p75-78. Web. 7 Apr. 2011

This article was about the use of racial profiling by the police and whether or not it can be proved.  This article goes on to explain how racial profiling can cause an ethnic group to begin to lose confidence in the police.  If a group feels as though they are being treated unfairly, then they will not believe in the law.  In the article, it describes ‘While prejudice involves conscious intent, cognitive bias and stereotyping can be unconscious biases based on false assumptions about the criminality of ethnic groups.”  This quote is explaining that even though prejudice might be used with cautious intentions, bias and stereotyping can affect your choices.  Bias and stereotyping clouds your judgment and prevents you from making clear decisions.

This article goes on to explain a specific case, the Satzewich and Shaffir case, which explains racial profiling can be best understood in the police world, where they use this tactic as a part of their work.  This case “Provides evidence that police officers in their study saw profiling as integral to police work and admitted that the racial appearance of the citizen was one factor among others that they took into account when deciding whether to intervene.”  Whether or not officers intentionally do it, racial profiling is a major issue in police work.  It is hard to look at someone and not judge them. Although this tactic can be helpful at times, it usually causes misjudgment and causes groups to lose faith in the law.